2. • In 2009 Chinese travellers spent $4bn more
OVERSEAS than at home
• This is forecast to rise to over $7bn this year
• About 100 million Chinese are expected to
travel overseas by 2020
• The UAE has ambitions to double the number
of tourists by 2020
3. Number of Visitors
• UAE achieved ADS in 2009
• 2008 – 96,000 Chinese visitors to UAE
• 2009 – 150,000
• 2010 – 170,000
• 2011 – 195,000
4. Where do they stay?
• Most popular hotel destinations among
Chinese travellers are:
• Burj Al Arab
• Atlantis The Palm
• Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel
• The One and Only
5. Increased trade links
• Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce
Marketing has opened three offices in China in
Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou
• Emirates has more flights between China and
UAE
• The increasing number of Chinese visitors has
prompted the Louis Vuitton boutique at Mall
of the Emirates to recruit Chinese staff
• 70 per cent of its sales go to Chinese people
6. Importance of online
• The Internet has become the most important
medium for the country’s growing number of
tourists to plan vacations
• While most Chinese visit traditional travel
websites for research, they are likely to
finalize their itineraries on social networks
with other travellers
7. High recall for travel ads online
• Online advertising, however, is also having
more influence on Chinese travellers than
advertising in more traditional mediums like
television and print
• Almost 70 percent of those surveyed
remembered seeing travel ads on the Internet
8. Opportunities
• Less than 2 % of the total destination media
expenditure goes to Internet advertising
• Every day the C-trip online travel forum
receives 2 million page views, and the
destination exploration channels receive 1.1
million page views
9. Timescale and things to do
• Chinese tourists often have only five or six days at a
time for holidays which makes Dubai a very
attractive destination
• Shopping is very important
• They don’t mind travelling during summer months
• Luxury purchases abroad are a big part of consumer
spending
• Status associated with being able to travel overseas
and come back with suitcases full of luxury goods
10. Ideas moving forward for Hotels
• Mobile apps in Cantonese / Mandarin for
hotels to help Chinese tourist get around
easily – promote this during hotel marketing
strategy
• In room digital advertising tailored to the
Chinese tourist (screens, tv etc)
• Hotel room becomes the data hub for the
tourist
11. Ideas for retail
• Special mobile retail offers for Chinese tourists
as they browse mall language specific (pre
order from hotel?)
• Digital comms for luxury goods – good pilot
for Chinese tourists in branded shops (AR /
mobile etc)
12. Potential user journey
• Chinese tourist uses online forums to plan
trip, sees advertising for UAE hotel chain
• On arrival, in room advertising informs him of
special offers at nearby mall and prompts him
to download the app (in chinese language)
• When in mall, redemptions through app allow
extra data to be gathered on habits
• Back in hotel room, NFC allows all that data to
be transferred to hotel back end systems
13. More resources
• All the resources I collect can be found here:
• http://bagtheweb.com/b/AsGg0o
• Or, search for: “China Connect Middle East”
on www.bagtheweb.com